NHS 24 helpline fails to answer one in four calls

One in four calls to Scotland’s NHS 24 out-of-hours advice and triage service have gone unanswered during two months this year.

A Freedom Of Information request from Labour shows that of the 785,456 calls made to the service, which operates the 111 non-emergency number, in the last five months, 180,940 (23%) were abandoned.

The rate of unanswered calls on a monthly basis reached more than a quarter in March (27.5%) and June (27%).

The data also shows that the average waiting time when contacting the service was just over 22 minutes in June – an increase of nearly five minutes compared to January’s 17 minutes and 30 seconds.

That is despite the launch of a new NHS 24 call centre in Dundee, which was announced in January as a move to “help facilitate the increase in demand for the NHS 24 service”.

Paul O’Kane, Scottish Labour public health spokesman, said: “It’s clear NHS 24 still cannot cope with the crisis engulfing our NHS.

“The extra investment in NHS 24 was welcome but sticking plasters won’t do the trick as long as the SNP keep letting our NHS fall deeper into chaos.

“Someone looking for help not only faces unanswered calls to NHS 24 but unprecedented waits at A&E, a battle for an appointment with a GP, and record waiting lists for treatment.”

Janice Houston, director of service delivery at NHS 24, said: “NHS 24 is experiencing very high call volumes to the 111 service. Since the start of the pandemic NHS 24 has rapidly expanded the numbers of staff within our services to support our callers, as well as opening two new centres.

“Continued high demand means that, at times, people have experienced a longer wait time for their calls to be answered.”